Public, Private Pensions Set to Collide Over ESG Investing (1)

A US Labor Department plan to ease restrictions on green private-sector retirement investing is on track for release later this year amid a new wave of red-state anti-ESG policies clouding what was supposed to be a victory for socially-conscious investors.

The political environment in which DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration will likely issue the new final environmental, social, and corporate governance investing rule is starkly different from a year ago when the proposed version was made public.

More than a dozen Republican state legislatures have passed or proposed bills that blacklist ESG-friendly money managers or ban ESG investing altogether. Almost ...